State of the (Health Care Reform) Union

Insuring Resources Commentary:

There is no clear path forward, especially since our President displayed an astounding lack of leadership, saying only "I will not quit", and Congress needs to pass health care reform, but providing no actual direction. The next steps Thursday and Friday of this week will be very telling.

In particular I want readers to pay special attention to the health care reform comments by Gov. McConnell in the Republican response after the President's speech.
Please see below and I'll analyze his 3 main points here:

1)Most (Americans) "do not want to turn over the best medical care system in the world to the federal government."
The Democrats proposals do not even come close to "turning the best (actually its #33 in the world) health care system over to the federal gov't." 'Gov't takeover'- its amazing they're still getting way with that rhetoric.

The House plan does include a public plan option.... for about 10% of the market!

2) McConnell- "Republicans in Congress have offered legislation to reform health care, without shifting Medicaid costs to the states, without cutting Medicare, and without raising your taxes."
Yes he's right, it does those things, BUT it would change access to health insurance through tax credits and the plans are high deductible health plans with HSAs. Eventually most Americans would have $5,000 deductibles and pay for most of their care themselves with little if any help from their employers purchasing power reducing risk.

3) "let families and businesses buy health insurance policies across state lines".

The reason why we have state regulated insurance plans is because the public demanded and WANTED mandates like mammograms, birth control coverage, 48-hour minimum hospital stay after giving birth, chiropractic care, and others.

If we allow interstate purchase its going to be a race to the bottom with pared down coverage competing to be the cheapest. That's what's good for business owners, not consumers. Plans sold and barely regulated by the likes of Alabama will pervade the market. Alabama doesn't regulate insurance, they rubber stamp the weakest coverage possible. Where do you want your employer to buy YOUR health insurance.... Alabama... or Wisconsin?


---------------- -------------------------
Here's what the President had to say on health care reform earlier tonight in the State of the Union address: Video link: http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2010/01/27/sotu.sot.obama.healthcare.cnn?hpt=C2


Here's what he had to say on Health Care Reform: Obama apologized for not making the case clearer to the public for health care reform and noted that the back room deals involved tarnished the public's view but he concluded by saying, "I will not walk away."

Yesterday the New York Times reported the following:

With no clear path forward on major health care legislation, Democratic leaders in Congress effectively slammed the brakes on President Obama’s top domestic priority on Tuesday, saying they no longer felt pressure to move quickly on a health bill after eight months of setting deadlines and missing them. The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, deflected questions about health care. “We’re not on health care now,” Mr. Reid said. “We’ve talked a lot about it in the past.”


And now for the Republican response to Obama's address on health care reform from Gov. McConnell of Virginia:
"While Americans agree that an affordable, high-quality health care system is needed, most of them "do not want to turn over the best medical care system in the world to the federal government."

"Republicans in Congress have offered legislation to reform health care, without shifting Medicaid costs to the states, without cutting Medicare, and without raising your taxes," he said. "We will do that by implementing common-sense reforms, like letting families and businesses buy health insurance policies across state lines, and ending frivolous lawsuits against doctors and hospitals that drive up the cost of your health care."